This paper briefly reviews highlights from decades of debates in medicine, law, bioethics, psychology and social research about children’s and parents’ views and consent to medical treatment and research. There appears to have been a rise and later a fall in respect for children’s views, illustrated among many examples by a recent book on the zone of parental discretion, which is reviewed. A return to greater respect for children’s views and consent is advocated.

In this paper we introduce a poset of subvarieties of BL-algebras, whose completion is the entire lattice of subvarietes; we exhibit also a description of this poset in terms of finite sequences of functions on the natural numbers.

Open peer commentary on the article “A Cybernetic Approach to Contextual Teaching and Learning” by Philip Baron. Upshot: I present a new concept, the “In-sight Quotient,” which encourages learners to go deeper into the subconscious structure of learning. This enables them to manage the quality of their own individual learning experience. The lecturer becomes no longer a teacher but a “neuro-programmer.”.

The Mental Health Act 2007 introduced Deprivation of Liberty safeguards into the Mental Capacity Act 2005 with potentially far reaching resource implications. There appears to be no scientific data regarding the prevalence of deprivation of liberty in clinical settings such as hospitals and nursing homes. We examined how many patients across a whole Trust area in Wales were subject to some lack of capacity, how well documented this was and how many were potentially deprived of their liberty. We found that (...) no patient was deprived of their liberty, but 8% lacked capacity to make either basic or complex decisions; another 5% lacked capacity to make complex decisions. Documentation was good in mental health and community directorates, but there were gaps in documentation (not practice) in the medical and surgical directorates. Routine collection of data improved documentation regarding deprivation of liberty criteria. There is a high likelihood that senior nursing staff underestimate the number of patients who lack capacity. (shrink)

It has been suggested that metallothioneins, discovered about 45 years ago, play a central role in heavy metal metabolism and detoxification, and in the management of various forms of stress. The metal‐regulatory transcription factor‐1 (MTF‐1) was shown to be essential for basal and heavy metal‐induced transcription of the stress‐responsive metallothionein‐I and metallothionein‐II. Recently it has become obvious that MTF‐1 has further roles in the transcriptional regulation of genes induced by various stressors and might even contribute to some aspects of malignant (...) cell growth. Furthermore, MTF‐1 is an essential gene, as mice null‐mutant for MTF‐1 die in utero due to liver degeneration. We describe here the state of knowledge on the complex activation of MTF‐1, and propose a model with MTF‐1 as an interconnected cellular stress‐sensor protein involved in heavy metal metabolism, hepatocyte differentiation and detoxification of toxic agents. BioEssays 23:1010–1017, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

JOHN STUART MILL by R. J. Halliday. (Political Thinkers, 4.) Allen & Unwin, 1976. 151 pp. £5.95 cloth, £2.95 paper.

This paper explores the philosophical aspects of the "Great Introduction" of Abū Ma'šar, one of the great figures of Arabic astrology and an associate of al-Kindī, the great 9th century philosopher. I argue that the following points of philosophical interest may be found in this text: 1. Astrology is described as a "master science" along the lines proposed by Aristotle, i.e. it provides principles for lower sciences. Also he supplies arguments to ground astrology on methodological grounds, such as the use (...) of empirical evidence and testimony. 2. Abū Ma'šar broadly follows al-Kindī's explanation of how the stars influence the sublunary world, by heating the elements. This agrees with al-Kindī's work "On the Proximate Agent Cause of Generation and Corruption," and I identify some parallels between the two works. 3. Finally, Abū Ma'šarr considers whether human freedom is compatible with this causal account. He holds that human actions do fall under the class of the "possible" and not the "necessary," but only because for him the "possible" is what happens sometimes, not always. Thus he seems tacitly to hold that genuine choice is compatible with causal necessitation. (shrink)